Villa Venier Contarini

Via Capitello Albrizzi 3, Mira - VE

The villa is composed by a sixteenth-century main body flanked by two barns, an oratory and a park. The historic catalogues relate that in 1660 Niccolò Venier bought the villa and in 1685 he added the oratory, that was restored and completed in 1752 by the architect Lorenzo Boschetti. In the early 1800s, the architect Carboni extended the main body of the villa and joined it to the two barns by an architrave porch. In 1780 died the last heir of the Venier family. The villa became property of the cousin Maria Venier, the wife of the prosecutor Alvise II Contarini (the villa takes the name of “Villa Venier Contarini”). Maria Venier died in 1827 and, from that moment on, it changed several owners until 1953, when it became property of the Congregazione delle Suore Domenicane della Beata Imelda. In 2001, the Istituto Regionale Ville Venete acquired the villa on behalf of the Veneto Region. The Istituto Regionale Ville Venete transferred its place of operation at Villa Venier Contarini.

Excellences of the context: the building is situated along the Riviera del Brenta, in Mira, few km far from the monumental Villa Pisani in Stra and from Villa Foscari, also known as “La Malcontenta”, near Venice.

Excellences of the villa: The two barns of Villa Venier, initially built as working places, with Niccolò Venier became elegant spaces of leisure enriched with frescoes. In the East-barn, a room is decorated with frescoes representing some scenes of the Psyche’s story. It is assumed that the painter is the Flemish Daniel Van Den Dyck (1610-1670). The West-barn has three rooms entirely painted with frescoes representing stories based on Odyssey, Aeneid and Iliad. The frescoes are theatrical and baroque, the painters are Antonio Zanchi (1631-1722) and Domenico Bruni (?-1666).

HOW TO ARRIVE

By car: Only a few km away from Vicenza, Padua and Venice Tessera's Airport.
The new ring road of Limena allows to reach Piazzola sul Brenta in just a few minutes after Padua East's motorway exit. The A4 highway exit is Mirano-Dolo.

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